Starting at $575/month after gas savings, the Model S is
still a relatively expensive car, but here is what makes it worth the price:

Maximum Safety - The single most important thing
to know about the Model S is that it is literally the safest car on the
road bar none. It didn't just receive five stars in every category and subcategory
of safety (including for pedestrians), which about 1% of other cars do-the
Model S recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested
by the U.S. government across all passenger vehicles, including minivans
and SUVs. In addition, every Model S comes standard with automatic emergency
braking, as well as blind-spot and forward- and side-collision warning systems
to prevent accidents in the first place. Speed and cool features are nice,
but nothing is more important than the safety of you, your family and your
friends.

Utility - Since the Model S doesn't need a big combustion
engine, radiators, exhausts or catalytic converters, it has tremendous cargo
capacity. With both a trunk in the front and a trunk in the rear, it has
more storage space than any other sedan and more than most SUVs. There is
so much space in the back that you can have an optional fold-flat, rear-facing
third seat, allowing you to carry five adults, two children and luggage
in the front trunk. Tesla installs a high strength steel bumper to enable
the car to take highway-speed impacts in the rear without permanent injury
to the third row. You can also carry several sets of skis, bikes and other
equipment using the built-in attachments for the roof rack. Other features
that improve utility are a dynamic air suspension that remembers where it
needs to raise itself, based on when you last pressed it. With this, you
can raise the car above the snow and get through anything SUVs can handle.
Tesla's biggest per capita sales are above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

Service - Tesla received the highest customer feedback
rating for service of any car brand in production: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/03/best-places-to-get-your-car-repaired/index.htm
A big reason for this is that Tesla intentionally operates its service centers
at break-even. We don't believe in profiting off our product if it is not
working. Our service centers are located throughout North America and Canada.
If there isn't one near you, no problem: the Tesla ranger service will take
care of you wherever you are.

Performance - Even the basic Model S has great acceleration
and handling. This goes all the way up to the P90D version, which does a
record-breaking 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and a 10.9-second quarter mile,
far beyond the capabilities of any other four-door car and faster than a
Porsche 911 Turbo. The P90D in ludicrous mode can accelerate at 1.1 g's,
which is faster than falling. What makes our handling superior to gasoline
cars is that the center of gravity (cg) is extremely low, because the battery
pack is in the floor pan, centered between the axles. This also means that
a key engineering measure of handling, the polar moment of inertia, is almost
perfect. No other production car in the world has a more ideal placement
of mass for optimal handling. The Model S has Newton on its side. With Tesla's
dual motor all-wheel drive, the traction and handling in every kind of weather
are a step change better than gasoline all-wheel drive. Instead of having
a simple mechanical shaft connecting front and rear, a Tesla actually has
a motor in the front and a motor in the rear, so it can dynamically shift
torque front to rear at the millisecond level, effectively providing digital
traction control an order of magnitude more precise than mechanical linkages.
Like an airliner, it also enables motor redundancy. If one motor encounters
a fault, you can simply drive with the other one, rather than being stuck
on the side of the road.

Cool features - The Model S has an easy-to-use 17-inch
touchscreen computer that is always improving itself and the rest of the
car via free over-the-air updates. The car learns your habits and will automatically
set the cabin temperature to your preference when it thinks you are about
to use the car. If you enable the calendar function, the car will show you
your appointments on a big, easy-to-read screen, and you can just tap an
address to navigate there. No more fumbling with a tiny phone. Navigation
includes real-time traffic data from the car's cell connection, and it will
dynamically adjust your route as traffic conditions change. In the morning
and evening, it will alert you and offer an alternate route if your normal
route is congested. You can also ask the car to play any song or favorite
band at any time just by holding down the voice button. It also has lots
of comedy sketches available, ranging from Monty Python to Jim Gaffigan.
Coming in a few weeks via an over-the-air update are the highway autosteer
and parallel autopark functions. When asked, the car will automatically
control steering going down the freeway, dramatically reducing driver workload.
It will also automatically parallel park with precision. In a few months,
you will be able to press a button on your Tesla phone app and the car will
open your garage and put itself to bed. You will also be able to summon
it from your garage if it isn't plugged in. It needs the Tesla Snakebot
for that!

What about charging? - The Model S has a charger
built-in, so most owners just plug into a wall socket at their home or office.
It can use anything from a standard 110V outlet at 1.5 kW all the way to
the Wall Connector at 20 kW. Most customers just install a simple 240 V
dryer socket in their garage, which all electricians can do, and it works
perfectly. For long distance, you get to use the free Tesla long-distance
Supercharger network, located near restaurants and amenities. Typically
the time spent on recharging is about 25 to 30 minutes after three hours
of driving, which is about right. If you start a trip at 9am, by noon most
people want to stop to use the restroom, have lunch or coffee and be on
their way. By the time you come back your car is ready to go. The Supercharger
network covers the lower 48 continental states in the U.S. and parts of
southern Canada, soon to include Mexico. As mentioned above, the Tesla Superchargers
really are free to use for life. You could go on a road trip (rear seats
fold flat into a great bed), pack some food and leave your wallet at home.
Map: https://www.teslamotors.com/findus/supercharger

Expert opinions - The Model S has won almost every
award offered for a vehicle, including Motor Trend Car of the Year, Automobile
Car of the Year and Consumer Reports' best car in the world (two years running).
Moreover, Consumer Reports gave Model S the highest rating of any car in
its long history: 99/100. The reason CR is the most trusted source for buyers
is that they don't take advertising, they buy a car secretly and at random
(so they know it is a normal car) and they test it rigorously for months
before reaching a rating. There is no more objective source.

Environmental Impact - Building a Model S produces
roughly the same CO2 as a gasoline car of similar weight, however it is
far more CO2-efficient in driving, which is what really matters over the
lifetime of the car. The EPA rates the efficiency of Model S as equivalent
to 90 mpg-making it twice as energy-efficient as a compact hybrid even when
factoring in power plant emissions. The current Model S number will steadily
improve over time as older power plants are phased out in favor of clean,
renewable energy. However, if you install even a small solar panel on your
house or garage, you will actually produce more electricity during the week
than you consume with your car, making your automotive carbon footprint
unequivocally zero or better. And, in the unlikely event of a zombie apocalypse,
you will still be able to charge and drive your car!!